A/N: I'm putting in a content warning for this chapter for some spooky witchcraft, distortion of the human body and magical forces taking hold of the human body. If you don't like to read that stuff, skip this chapter.
There's also some extra sensual make-out depictions in this, but nothing explicitly sexual.
In the Gryffindor common room, perched atop a cushioned windowsill, sat Victorie. She stared down at the grounds below and watched the tiniest snowflakes flutter around in the air outside the window.
In front of her on the very same bench Roxanne accompanied her. Although her cousin wasn't very good company at the moment, she was currently engrossed in The Lavender Waltz.
She scanned the pages in disbelief. Then returned to the page Victorie had initially shown her. "If this is true, and this recipe actually works, it's revolutionary magic." After a nod of confirmation from Victorie she went on, "I wonder why it's kept in the restricted section."
"Did you not read the recipe?" Victorie questioned sarcastically. "It would be a sure death to be spiked by the Venomous Tentacula while trying to clip its leaves."
"So why have you decided to attempt it then?" She asked while flicking through the rest of the book, sealing her fate of getting utterly engrossed in it once more.
"Because I'm not some clueless first year." Victorie huffed. She was eyeing one of them at the moment. A short boy chatting animatedly to Teddy Lupin a few meters away.
Teddy was smiling politely back at the boy, and nodded with exaggerated interest at whatever the boy was relaying to him.
"I know a spell that will make it harmless." She finished, but her words turned soft toward the end of the sentence, as Teddy had noticed her. He smiled at her for a moment, then excused himself from his conversation and approached.
Victorie looked down. She shifted in her seat and adjusted her shirt. But more than that she couldn't think to do, and soon found herself unsure of how to handle herself.
Luckily Teddy was still her crutch, and without inhibition, he greeted them warmly.
"Hi." Roxanne replied. But didn't do much more than look up from the book for a brief second.
Teddy raised his eyebrows at Roxanne and turned his attention solely toward Victorie instead with an amused expression. "It's snowing." He remarked.
"Duly noted." Victorie replied with a smug smile.
He rolled his eyes and tucked his hands in his pockets. "Thought you'd be a little more excited than that."
Victorie gazed up at his shy smile. She was excited in fact, but she wanted to watch him twist so charmingly in the palm of her hand a little more. "Why should I? It's a seasonal change like any other."
Without missing a beat Teddy explained, "Yeah, but you once said that snow was the one thing you could always count on to make you happy."
She lost some of her concentration then, and the palm of her hand lost some weight. "Did I say that?"
"It's true actually." Roxanne piped from the book. "You told me that too, years ago."
"See?" Teddy said. "I'm not lying to you."
"I guess not. Though I am concerned by the fact that it stuck with you. Must be a lot of free headspace up there."
Roxanne tilted her head up from her book slightly, and glanced at the two of them.
"You'd be surprised at how many trivial bits about you can stay with a guy like me."
"I see. I take it that rent is pretty affordable inside your brain?"
"I like to see it more as a hotel. I take it in, pan for gold, and send the rest off."
"How flattering."
Roxanne shut the book with a thud, decidedly refraining from commenting on their peculiar behaviour toward one another, and Victorie and Teddy instantly snapped out of their daze to look at her. "Have you told him about your plans?" She asked.
Victorie frowned at the question, but Roxanne didn't notice.
Teddy's interest peaked and he asked, "What plans?"
When Victorie didn't answer Roxanne stepped in, "She's going for a night-time heist in a few days."
"Ethan and I are sneaking out to the Greenhouses to nick ingredients for a potions project of his." Victorie admitted.
Teddy didn't seem surprised. He let out a sigh. "Ethan is always doing shady stuff." He turned to Victorie with a frown. "Since when do you care enough about potions to sneak out after curfew and steal?"
She nodded in agreement. "Not typically, but I can pretend to care about some potion for one night."
Teddy's eyebrows contorted even more. "Why risk getting in trouble for something so trivial?"
The redhead folded her arms over her chest. "Because he seems to actually like me and I'm trying to make friends, right?" She waited for the boy before her to agree with her like expected, but then had to remind herself that Teddy wasn't ever prone to do what she expected.
Much to her presumption, Teddy did not seem to agree with his own stance from days gone by. "By pretending to be into the same things as he?" He snarled.
She let out a breath of disbelief at his negative attitude. "Well, it doesn't always have to be genuine. That's what you said, right?"
Teddy stared at her. It didn't seem like he was going to reply, so she went on, "Besides, it's actually quite an interesting potion. I'm sure it'll be really fun."
"Yeah, it's really cool." Roxanne added with tense enthusiasm, looking between the presently eye-feuding couple.
Without taking his eyes off Victorie once, and as though not having heard any of the girls' latest arguments, he posed his question, "You know how much trouble you could get in?"
Victorie pressed her lips together and stared at him for a moment. She let a puff of pent up air come out of her nose instead. Then she said, "For a person who seems to despise your father's rule-abiding nature, you sure sound a lot like him."
Which turned out to be the last word between the two that night, as Teddy, without needing so much as a moment's consideration, turned on his heel and took off out of sight. Disappearing into his dorm room.
Once the boy had made his departure, Victorie shook her head and shared a look with Roxanne.
"I can't believe him!" Victorie spat. "He's the one who told me that I don't have to be genuine."
Roxanne shook her head in shocked amusement. "I can't believe you brought up his dad to him." She proclaimed.
Things got pretty chilly after that.
Heavy snow pulled in over the highlands. A week later, on the day of her excursion with Ethan, the precipitation had calmed significantly. But a thick and smooth blanket had dressed the grounds she walked upon. It was like whipped cream, fluffy and luscious and adorning every little twig outside like a winter wonderland.
Victorie loved the snow. She loved to watch it sparkle in the sun, like a powder, whirling off a branch as a tiny bird leaped off it and flew away. She loved the palpable quiet that came with it. How only the sound of her own crunching footsteps could be heard.
She hadn't spoken to Teddy in the past week. She didn't love that. It wasn't until after dinner that he came up to her in the corridor.
She greeted him fondly despite the evident tension between them. But something about the ambiguous emotion in his eyes made her suggest that they should sneak into a classroom to chat.
Teddy closed the door behind them as Victorie sat down on a chair.
"So your date is tonight, is it?" He asked as he pulled up a chair to sit down opposite her.
"It's not a date." She quipped.
With a surprising level of annoyance in his tone, Teddy started, "It's Ethan we're talking about, it's obvious he's into you." Gone was any ambiguity on the emotion reflected in his eyes. A little calmer, he went on, "Come on Victorie, it's a date."
"Are you at all nervous?" He asked, more sensitively.
"No." She answered, more to defy him than anything.
Teddy studied her for a minute. "Really?" He said, somewhere on the verge between a genuine question and something that likened an attack on her reliability.
She leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed. "Perhaps we have chemistry."
"Pffft." Came out of Teddy's mouth.
"Should I be nervous?" She asked rebelliously.
"Well no…" He pondered. "It's just unlike you. Usually by now you're freaking out about one thing or the other."
Then with the most innocent voice and expression to match it, he suggested, "You know, like snogging for example."
"There's no snogging on the first date."
She stated it like a fact. Though for the first time since sitting down with a potent tear in her confidence.
Teddy fell silent, thinking. He pushed his lips together and shifted in his seat. "Sure, but I mean… you never know." He let his eyes catch hers. "He might be into the idea if you are."
Victorie looked stumped.
"Especially with Ethan…" Teddy went on.
Her eyes went wide. "What about him?"
Teddy interlaced his fingers and leaned forward. "Listen Victorie, I know Ethan pretty well. He's got more moves than just flirting. If I were you I wouldn't go in expecting just some hand holding or something."
"What should I expect?" She asked. Suddenly the excursion felt more like a date than ever. It was exciting yet nerve-racking.
And then Teddy decided to get annoyingly vague about it. He leaned back and rubbed his nose lightly. "Probably nothing."
"Okay," she began, "but on the off chance that the date goes really well?"
As if having been awaiting his signal Teddy sat forward again and started, "Well if we're toying with the idea…" He trailed off. A smile threatened to reveal itself, but he turned his head and Victorie only caught a glimpse of it. "For one, he would probably have you standing up for this." He explained when he looked back her way. Hinting at her to follow his advice.
In the blink of an eye Victorie was at her feet, tensely watching as Teddy stood up slowly and pushed the chair away so that he could get in front of her. His eyes trailed approvingly along her hair for a moment.
"What would Ethan do next?" She asked with mostly concealed excitement. All the animosity between them seemed gone at this point.
Teddy smiled. "Well… if he's got anything but sawdust in his head, I'm sure he'd try something like this…" He lifted her up on the table. Victorie's eyes went wide in surprise and she gripped his shoulders to steady herself. Next Teddy slid his hands down to her waist and pulled her closer to him.
A tense moment passed between them where Victorie couldn't help but look into his eyes despite how intimately close she was to him. She didn't need to wonder what would happen next. This was basically déjà vu.
Before she could get used to his proximity, he leaned in and pressed his mouth against hers. She opened her mouth, happy to give him access. He tilted his head to the other side and kissed her once more while she breathed in deeply. She closed her eyes, lost herself in the movements of his lips.
His fingertips traced just above her ear, tucking her hair behind her ear. His hand moved on to the back of her neck. He pulled her closer and the kiss deepened.
But just as it did, Teddy slowed his movements until they were merely gracing each other's open lips and he stopped, frozen in place.
"Again?" She requested, eyes still closed. She was about to pull his face to hers, but Teddy grabbed her hands before they met with his face. His actions forced her to open her eyes and look at him.
His eyebrows were raised. "So that you can use it on Ethan?"
So that I can get it out of my system and be able to think clearly around you again.
But the words didn't come out. No words came out in fact, and a little too much time passed.
His expression turned pained. He looked at the door and mumbled, "I should head off."
"Why?" She asked. But inside it felt more like an argument than a question.
Their eyes met again. For a moment they were perfectly still.
His eyes fitted back to her lips and she began to feel hopeful again. He leaned a fraction closer to her. His cologne enveloped her. It was like excitement and desire in one. Like safety in times of distress. Like attention in a time of loneliness. His lips fell open and he inched ever so slightly closer…
"I should head off." He repeated.
Then his hands left her waist and he rushed out of the classroom.
A big coat of snow weighed down on the glass roofs of the Greenhouses. Victorie shivered in her large brown cardigan. Thankfully she had at least put on a beanie and her thickest stockings before her and Ethan had headed out.
Perhaps it had been stupid to wear so little, she pondered while she watched Ethan's breath steam up the night air as he struggled with the lock. But as soon as he got the door open and they stepped inside the humid warmth of greenhouse one, she knew that she had made the right decision. She relaxed and stopped hugging herself for warmth.
"I knew this would come in handy." Ethan said proudly and put his unlocking penknife back in his pocket.
The kerosene lamps inside provided some dearly appreciated light as well. Their professor had told them that they had been enchanted to perfectly imitate sunlight for the benefit of the plants during the dark winter months.
Victorie turned around and looked beyond the frosty glass walls, but saw nothing. It was impossible for her eyes to adjust to anything outside of where the lamps reflected their piercing white light. She knew she should be, but it was difficult to be positive about the lamps when she would have liked to see anything but darkness outside.
But any eeriness she felt dissipated quickly once Ethan began leading the way down the jungle of greenery growing all around the mid-aisle of greenhouse one. Only some of the plants inhabiting it were of the still-standing kind.
She focused on the well of remarkable specimen around her and it dawned on her that being in this familiar place was an entirely new experience under the circumstances. No area was out of bounds for her any longer. And soon the vast and uncharted darkness outside the greenhouse became a black wall instead.
Around her were shelves of every ingredient or rare species she could imagine stretched out in front of her. One shelf she passed contained many different growth potions stacked up and bottled in every shape and colour and with handwritten little labels on them. All of them wide open for her to do with as she pleased.
Victorie reached out for one of the bottles, but pursed her lips. The idea of taking one only set off other ideas in her head of all the time and resources that had gone into making that very thing. Her hand retracted. Ultimately she made the decision to go on and catch up with Ethan instead.
He was walking ahead of her with purpose, picking off bits and pieces from a few of the plants they passed and storing it in his pockets.
As they passed the much beloved Wiggentree, with its miniature-tree-like structure, Victorie made eye contact with the Bowtruckles hanging out underneath its branches. The little creatures guarded its awe-inspiring presence and stared menacingly up at her, making her feel guiltier than she wished.
When they reached the end of the aisle Ethan propped the door to their right open for her to pass through. The door led them into greenhouse number two.
Just past the door hung hooks with earmuffs and dragon hide gloves on them. There was also a shelf with Dragon Dung Fertilizer. Victorie studied the substance, but Ethan wasted no time taking in the sights of their new location. He began heading straight down the next aisle.
She wondered if he was nervous. He wasn't speaking much, and seemed to be hurrying in the fashion of someone who wanted the ordeal to be over with. She figured that she should make use of her new superpower and ask him a question to ease the mood.
"Why do you even need a brain elixir?" Was the first thing that came to mind. She then thought it best to add in some flattery as well, in case she did in fact want to hit it off with the boy. "You're already smart enough to get by in Ravenclaw house."
"Yeah but…" He slowed down his pace a little, and she felt successful. "Look, I don't want to just get by in Ravenclaw." He looked back at her to make sure she was catching his meaning.
"Of course, that's not how I meant-"
"I want to excel." He continued. "The fact that I'm in Ravenclaw is the exact reason I want the potion."
Victorie nodded slowly behind him as he treaded forward, alluding to some level of enlightenment as to his incentives.
"It would be nice to not have to try so damn hard for a change." Ethan pushed the words out as though they were the first he had spoken after passing the finish line of a marathon.
He sighed and shook his head as he put his hand on the door handle into greenhouse three. He turned to look at her. Then, when she least expected it, a tiny smile formed on his lips, stretching into one of his cheeks. "I want all the knowledge there is and I want it now." He said simply. "I want to be great, and I want to be noticed."
She squinted at him curiously. The extent of his outspokenness caught her off guard. It was refreshing to hear a person's inner desires expressed so unashamedly.
His smile persisted as he took her in. He seemed to enjoy watching the way her face reacted to his words.
The next greenhouse was significantly colder and darker. The first thing Victorie spotted as she stepped inside was a leafy bush frozen solid to its roots. "Oh, no!" She ejected.
Ethan touched her shoulder. "Don't worry. That's the Gelida Rubus. It grows like that."
"Really?" She mumbled, taking in the plant's frosty posterior and glossy ice-leaves. It must have been a new addition to the greenhouse, because she had never seen it or anything like it before.
"It's beautiful, right?" Ethan put his hands in his pockets and gave himself a moment to take it in as well. His shoulders had sunk down slightly, and he looked overall more relaxed. "Just don't touch it or you will get frostbite." He added with a crooked smile. "Most of the plants in here are pretty good at defending themselves."
He demonstrated his point by reaching up above them and touching the spiky leaf of some
"Mistletoe." Victorie commented. It was growing all around the ceiling beams like red little pearls.
Ethan smiled wider and shrugged. "It's actually holly." His smile became a fully-fledged grin when Victorie covered her face with her hands and moaned at her own ignorance.
"Is Herbology the one subject where The Great Victorie fails?" He chuckled softly. "Don't worry. I won't put you on a pedestal."
Victorie released her face but avoided looking him in the eye. "I think you already have." She argued. Not that she minded. Her cheeks had even flushed a little.
"Yeah well… That's just because I think you're brilliant." He admitted and took a step closer.
Victorie trained her eyes on him. She felt his hand on her arm as he slid it down to her wrist, until he was almost at hand-holding territory.
He looked up at the holly again, as did she. They beheld its spiky evergreen leaves and strikingly red berries.
It all made her feel like she was in an ornamental garden. Which she guessed she kind of was.
Ethan looked down at her lips, leaned in. Their mission seemed to have been temporarily rinsed from his mind, and she couldn't help but congratulate herself on having made it this far into the stages of what was starting to resemble an actual date.
Then she heard a rustle, which she decided to ignore.
Then Ethan leaned in closer. But the rustle continued.
And then she remembered. She looked to their right. Down on the floor was the Venomous Tentacula having snuck up on them. It writhed its nest-like stems, spitting at them aggressively. Ethan gasped and Victorie began fumbling for her wand as quickly as she could, adrenaline flushing through her body.
"Immobulus!" She cried out as soon as she got her wand ready and pointed at the plant. Slowly but surely the tentacula's stems stilled.
The two teens breathed out in relief and supported themselves on each other, knowing the danger to be over.
"Nice." Ethan commented and clapped Victorie approvingly on her shoulder. But he seemed to mostly be directing his sentiment at the tentacula plant.
He bent down next to it and beheld it for a moment. Then he got out some shears from his bag and began pruning some of its leaves off and into a small jar. "Those were some quick reflexes you exhibited there." He said.
But Victorie felt like she had fumbled her way through the encounter. "I guess."
Ethan stood up proudly and presented the jar of leaves to her. "That's it. We have everything we need now."
"Wait, you've already got all of the ingredients?" She reached into her bag for the book, flipped it onto the right page and skimmed through the long list of ingredients.
"The only thing missing was the tentacula leaves." He smiled.
She stared at him in disbelief.
"You didn't think I'd come all the way down here after curfew and only walk away with one lousy Puffapod last time, did you?" He chuckled, but she didn't find herself particularly amused. "Not that it's actually that lousy, but you know… in comparison." He gestured at the Venomous Tentacula.
Victorie was still staring. She couldn't believe he had managed to get hold of everything already.
Ethan evidently didn't feel like waiting for her to come around to the idea, so he walked up to an empty space on the ground and sat down. He got his bag out, retrieved a small pot from it and began unscrewing it.
She sat down opposite him, plopped the book up in her lap and looked quizzically on as the boy dropped two leaves into the black liquid inside the pot. The leaves each sizzled and dissolved once met with the substance.
"Aren't you worried that the potion will go wrong?" She couldn't help but ask.
"Not very." Ethan said earnestly.
Victorie couldn't help but huff, despite knowing that she should pretend to be more on board.
"No, really." He insisted. "It's because we're going to do the ritual."
"What ritual?"
He looked up at her from his potion with a frown on his face. "The lavender waltz." He explained plainly.
The redhead looked down at the headline at the end of the recipe that read the same. "I didn't think that was essential." She said hesitantly, realising how stupid that sounded as she said it.
"Essential?" He repeated with wide eyes. "The lavender waltz is the whole point. It's what differentiates this recipe from being a regular hoax like Baruffio's Brain Elixir." His lips moved quickly and his voice was filled with spite when referring to the controversial potion. "Performing the ritual is a certain way of guaranteeing a good result. That's why it's crucial to the process." He finished and set the potion down on the ground between them.
Victorie fought off a roll of her eyes and moved closer to him before he had even reached for the salt in his bag. She knew all too well what was in store.
Ethan stood up, and in what looked to Victorie like an uninspired circle at best he began pouring the salt around them.
He sat down so that they were both cross-legged in front of each other with the potion at the centre. Their steamy breaths were visible in the icy air of the greenhouse. Victorie tucked her cardigan closer around her.
He placed black obsidian, onyx and ruby in a triangular shape around the pot. From his bag, he also got out a mortar and some dried lavender sprigs. After dragging the petals off and into the mortar he began muddling the content.
"I'm going to become unresponsive for a little while. That's okay. Just make sure you let me finish the incantation." He explained with a calm assurance.
Victorie's grip on her cardigan tightened, but she didn't say anything. She tried to wipe the distress on her face away as she watched Ethan finish muddling the flower into a purple powder.
He poured the substance into a small sack and laid it down next to the potion. Then he got out his wand, pointed it at the sack and began the incantation.
She could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest, but other than that, the mood felt peaceful.
There was a moment of delay while Ethan was canting, where nothing seemed to be happening.
Then all of the sudden the lavender powder flew out of the sack and into the air around them. A split second later the substance stilled, surrounding them completely like a purple sand cloud. They looked at each other. Ethan's face was distorted. It was like looking at him through a heavily scratched lens.
Her next intake of breath turned out to be a terrible mistake, because her nose and lungs filled with the powder. She began coughing manically, bending over in agony. Every time she coughed, she would suck more of the powder into her system. But she couldn't stop herself, and kept coughing until the point of almost gagging.
Ethan didn't stop canting, and before Victorie had a chance to compose herself, her back arched violently backward of its own accord. Her neck fell back along with it and her dizzy eyes shot open to stare at the glass ceiling above her. A whine escaped her from the strain on her tense body.
Ethan stared at her wide-eyed, but found that he couldn't for the life of him stop citing the incantation. His mouth had its own life, and moved on its own.
Then something else began to happen. Victorie's body contorted back to its original upright position. There was a moment of stillness before her body began rising from the ground. Cross-legged, with her hands on her knees and with her eyes glued open she kept rising until she was about two meters from the ground.
To the sound of Ethan's increasingly panicked incantation, her body began to spin before him. It then stopped and leaned to one side, then back upright, then back to spinning, and over and over again.
Ethan tried desperately to drop his wand or close his eyes or move his body, but nothing worked. He was at a standstill, while Victorie's body kept moving violently above him.
The door flew open, and a figure came barging in. Neither Ethan nor Victorie could examine the intruder. Her eyes were trained on the ceiling and his on her spinning body.
The intruder made one sweeping motion with his wand, and Ethan was pulled back, out of the circle, breaking the salt barrier in his course.
Victorie began falling, but just before hitting the ground the words, "Arresto momentum!" were bellowed, slowing her down just enough for the person to throw himself forward and catch her limp body in his arms. He set her down on the ground and sat back.
Victorie snapped out of her trance. Once she realised that she was safe and that her body was no longer out of her control she trained her eyes on the figure above her, and saw that it was Professor Longbottom sitting next to her with a worried stare in his eyes.
He breathed out in relief when he noticed that the girl had regained her mobility. He helped her sit up, then looked over at Ethan who was also in the process of sitting up, having fallen over too by the force with which he had been pulled out of the circle.
"You're lucky I have spies down here." Professor Longbottom said gravely, throat hoarse as he spoke.
A small little Bowtruckle peered out at them from his shoulder. It was holding onto his ear for stability with its flexible twig arms.
The professor gestured at the creature. "Little Bowie here spotted someone in here last week." He gave Ethan a meaningful look. The boy rubbed his forehead, looking crestfallen.
"And tonight I was aptly warned by my Screechsnap, my personal burglar alarm, who was quick to seek me out when they noticed that we had intruders in greenhouse one." The professor stood up and crossed his arms with his wand in one of his hands. He spoke with a slightly superior voice, although she could tell that there was some underlying anger beneath it as well, and she began to feel very shameful.
Longbottom looked around and saw The Lavender Waltz laying discarded on the ground. His lips formed into a tight line and he bent down and retrieved the book.
"I'll be keeping this." He asserted venomously. "I don't believe either of you are responsible enough to use it with the caution it deserves."
His eyes fell on the potion as well. He went up to the pot it lay stored in and squatted down over it, picked it up and studied it. Then his eyes trailed off toward Ethan's bag, where he could clearly see various herbs sticking out from the pockets.
His head fell and his eyes shut for a moment. Then he set the potion down and stood up again.
After confiscating the bag as well he escorted the pair to his nearby office. Victorie was asked to wait outside while he took Ethan in to discuss with first.
While standing outside the office in the darkness she thought through all imaginable punishments she would have to face. She tried to wager on what level she would land at.
She also went through her defence. How she was going to explain her actions to her teacher. She didn't find that she had much to say about it however, and came to the conclusion that she didn't really have a defence.
Eventually Ethan was let out and Victorie was next. The two students shared a nervous look as they passed each other.
Professor Longbottom studied her carefully as she stepped past him and into his office. She stepped onto a large red rug that filled almost his entire office, and he closed the door behind her.
He had all kinds of botany in every little crevice of his space. In the middle of it stood his desk, which he sat down at, and Victorie on the other side of it. She looked around at the walls. They were filled with framed pictures of great witches and wizards. Currently they were all staring at her disapprovingly.
He cleared his throat and adjusted a few things on his desk. Victorie pressed her lips together, awkwardly awaiting her punishment.
"Victorie." He began, granting her an accommodating smile. But there was a clear sombreness behind the façade, and she knew not to take it at face value. "I won't pretend I haven't noticed that you've done a mischievous thing or two while at this school."
She had to suppress a tug at her lips at the understatement. Her professor continued, "Though I never thought you would ever go as far as to steal from school property."
Victorie looked down at her hands.
"To betray the trust of your teachers in such a profound way is deplorable." He said simply. "Secondly, I never thought you would ever be so careless with your own safety to perform a spell from the restricted section of the school's library, unauthorised, and completely unsupervised."
Victorie looked up at him, then immediately regretted it. His facial expression alone was enough to make her ashamed of herself. Not to mention the legitimacy of what he was saying.
"To disregard your parents' devotion to you by putting yourself in danger like that is insulting to them." His voice rocked and shook with vigour now. Victorie tensed and cowered back to staring at her hands. "I sincerely hope that you never put yourself in danger like that again. Because I, for one, wouldn't want to see you get hurt."
"Of course, Professor." She whispered with a voice hitching from her held back tears. She didn't know how long she was going to be able to keep herself composed. Crying in front of a professor was not on the table, but she was so upset with herself.
She had no idea how she had gotten herself into this situation. She had agreed to things that were completely against her own beliefs. Now she was suffering the consequences of a crime that didn't feel like hers, although rightly so.
Professor Longbottom went on in a stone cold tone, "I want you to understand the magnitude of what you've done. Therefore I'm going to write to your parents. You will also receive detention for this."
Victorie nodded, closed her eyes besides her better judgement, and the first tear fell down into her lap. She prayed he hadn't seen it.
"I understand that none of this was your idea." Longbottom continued in a softer, more casual manner. He sighed deeply. "From one Gryffindor to another I suppose you wanted to feel brave by going against the school's code of conduct. But there's no glory in going against your own beliefs for the sake of seeming cool."
She attempted to wipe her eyes covertly behind her hair, then peered up at her teacher. His hands were clasped together and resting on top of his desk. To her relief she felt some compassion in the way he was looking at her.
"…May I remind you that the bravest deed of all is to have the courage to stand up to your friends when you know they're not doing what's right." He looked at her softly. "That's not an easy task, especially for someone to whom companionship is not always a given."
With that, Victorie finally broke down. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. "I'm sorry." She pushed out, shaking with every breath.
The professor stood and walked over to her. He kneeled down and put a hand on her shoulder as a comforting gesture. "I'm going to let you get back to your common room. And I hope that some of what I've said resonated with you." He clapped her on the shoulder and gave her a pitying look, knowing that it evidently had.
Victoire breathed deeply and removed her hands from her face. She wiped her cheeks and nodded.
"Take some time for yourself and rest. You've had a rough evening." He concluded.
She tried her best to keep her mouth closed, to not let any more sobs out in front of him. She stood up and he escorted her to the door. Before she opened it, Longbottom added, "I'm here if you ever need to talk to someone."
Victorie smiled up at him shyly from her tear-streaked face. "Thank you." She said, and exited his office.
Ethan was waiting for her in the corridor outside. As she walked up to him the professor shut the door behind them. She furrowed her brows as she looked back at the closed door, confuddled by his decision not to walk them back to their common rooms. But as they turned the corner none other than the Screechsnap stood waiting for them.
Victorie and Ethan shared a look, and continued awkwardly forward with the plant following closely behind them, using its roots as feet. Its mouth-like trap bobbed as it walked. She would have found it comedic had she not been so distraught.
Ethan looked anxiously at her as she walked up the stairs. "I'm so sorry Victorie."
The girl continued wiping her face (apparently she had more tears in her) and nodded solemnly in response.
"I feel terrible. I put us both in danger!" He blurted in a panicked stupor. "It won't ever happen again, I promise. I won't ever suggest doing something so reckless." He assured her.
Victorie nodded again. He was looking at her expectantly, but she didn't really feel like accommodating him at the present moment.
She kept walking, but soon she started feeling bad when the boy fell silent beside her. He was obviously very regretful, and even though the boy was not her favourite person at the moment, his remorse seemed genuine. "I forgive you." She muttered.
Ethan sighed out in relief. But he still seemed not entirely settled. Yet they walked on and didn't make any further comments on the matter for a while.
Eventually Ethan made his first attempt at relieving the tension. "We should have just gone to the party instead of doing something this stupid." He muttered, dragging his feet as he walked.
Victorie swung her head around to look at him. "There's a party? Tonight?"
"Yeah, can you believe it? I could have been at a Gryffindor party instead of making a fool of myself and receiving detention."
"A Gryffindor party?" The girl spat out in shock.
Again? She thought to herself. No other year during her time at Hogwarts had the parties ever been this frequent. She knew her schoolmates liked to have a good time, but this was unusual indeed.
Ethan looked back at the Screechsnap climbing the stairs behind them to see if the creature had been agitated by Victorie's raised voice. But it seemed for the moment unbothered.
"Yeah, sort of a spontaneous thing." He explained, glad to have got her talking. "But I found out when Teddy invited some of my Ravenclaw mates."
She stopped in her tracks and stared at him, mouth agape. "The party is Teddy's doing?"
The Screechsnap bumped into her leg. She scowled at it but kept moving so as to not get them in trouble again.
"I don't know. But it seemed like it might have been." Ethan reasoned.
They got off the staircase on the fifth floor, where they passed Victorie's usual shortcut to her common room. It pained her to have to walk past it, but she did what she had to do and continued down the corridor toward the Ravenclaw tower.
Victorie and her plant companion took Ethan down the corridor to the spiral staircase and let him off. He looked at her like he was about to say something, but settled on giving her a small smile, then disappeared up the staircase toward the tower.
She lingered there and let out a small sigh. But something growled beside her and her eyes found the Screechsnap twisting its trap in a way that wasn't exactly meant to set her at ease she figured. So she decided that now wasn't the time to dilly dally.
The Screechsnap escorted her back to the Gryffindor tower. It was excruciatingly slow as the plant wasn't exactly a fast walker. But eventually she made it there, where she found the fatigued looking painting of the Fat Lady.
Victorie waited until the Screechsnap had gone before she muttered the password. The Fat Lady sighed and opened the portrait hole. For a moment she was surprised by the lack of snide comments on her whereabouts past curfew. But once the portrait opened and she heard the noise from inside, she understood why Victorie was the least of her concerns.
All she wanted to do was hide under the covers of her bed and feel sorry for herself. When she stepped inside however the common room was entirely overcrowded, and a large portion of the crowd seemed to find the young girl sneaking inside at this hour to be remarkably interesting.
Thankfully though, not one of the people who had noticed her spoke a word to her as she dropped down onto the floor. They just stared.
Honestly! She thought. A third of the people at the party were not even Gryffindors, but them being out after curfew didn't seem to raise a single eyebrow.
She began wading through the crowds, kicking discarded soda cans lying on the floor as she walked. Irritation was beginning to brew inside her as she made her way forward. Fury, even. She soon found the culprit of her discontent — the creator of this vile display of leisure and joviality.
He was wearing a t-shirt and a necktie hung loosely around his neck, serving no purpose. Perhaps it was petty, but at the moment that necktie seemed like the stupidest thing she had ever seen. His sky-blue hair stood up, like by electricity, and he danced with Delilah like they were kids who didn't know what a reputation even was.
She marched up to him. His eyes were closed and the music was too loud for him to notice her. He kept jumping around. She shouted, "Teddy!"
Only Delilah opened her eyes. She stopped moving and smiled hesitantly at her, then looked curiously over at Teddy who was still dancing blindly.
There was no way that he hadn't heard her, and they both wondered why he was ignoring her. "Teddy!" She shouted again.
"Not right now!" He chimed snarkily. Still with his eyes closed.
Victorie recoiled, completely aghast. Never before had this boy ever ignored or turned her away before — quite the opposite. It didn't feel good.
Delilah rolled her eyes at the boy and decided to intervene. She tapped Teddy on the shoulder to snap him out of his own world.
Teddy finally opened his displeased eyes. For the first second or so that went by, he had to orient himself. His gaze drifted past Delilah and landed on Victorie. A flash of surprise flickered by on his features. Then he assumed the same displeased frown once more.
"I'm dancing!" He shouted over the music and closed his eyes again. A moment later he was swaying around like there had been no interruption.
Victorie stared hollowly at the boy. Since when has dancing turned into an elite sport?
She looked at Delilah, who seemed to share the same reaction. The girl gave her a compassionate hand on the shoulder. Victorie smiled back cheerlessly, then turned around and left.
All her anger had been replaced by sheer astonishment and a fair bit of hurt. She figured that if Teddy didn't want to talk to her, she wasn't going to force him to. Especially not when he was in this enigmatic mood.
But only after gaining a few meters on the dancing pair, the much too familiar voice of one of them came up behind her and stopped her by seizing her arm.
"So, was he a good kisser then?" He snarled into her ear.
Victorie snagged her arm back and shot daggers at him with her eyes. Without needing to even consider it, she decided to dilute the truth. "I don't know, I don't have much to compare it to."
Teddy pondered her response for a second. "I can think of one or two times you could compare it to." He said innocently.
"That was a while ago, I would need my memory refreshed." Victorie reasoned factually.
All expressions came clean off Teddy's face at that moment, until he was as blank as a canvas.
She reloaded her memory of the words she had just spoken, and realised the insinuation. She hadn't even meant it that way, but come to think of it, it might be the one thing that could make this night anything but detestable.
Teddy was still staring blankly at her. But Victoire didn't want to wait around for him to regain his brain power after what she had just said, so she decided to audaciously grab his irksome tie and pull him along by it.
The shocked boy let himself be guided away toward her dormitory, away from the crowd. One confundus charm later and they had both made it safely up the stairs. Victorie pulled Teddy inside the door where they both bumped right into Maya on the other side of it.
"Hey Victoire!" She exulted. "We didn't know where you were but-"
"We're very busy right now Maya!" Victorie interrupted and basically shoved the girl out the door and shut it in her very confused face.
The room went quiet for a moment in that ear-piercing silence that only a sudden lack of raving noise can bring. Teddy stared at Victorie with wide eyes.
"Have you been crying?" He blurted suddenly, seeing the dried streaks on her cheeks.
But he only had time to frown worriedly for a second or two before Victorie mumbled some half assed explanation of, "Need more practise kissing." and after receiving a fervent nod from him, she put him against the wall, pulled him down by his necktie and crashed her lips against his.
He still wanted answers, but also didn't for the love of Merlin want to do anything to stop what was happening.
Victorie pressed herself against him, having to hold back so that he actually maintained some room to breathe. She needed to feel his hands climb up to her hair again. Feel his soft skin against her nose as their lips intertwined.
He returned the kiss with unwavering enthusiasm. His arms circled around her body slowly and he held her as tightly as he could.
From side to side their heads turned as they gave each other access to the full extent of their mouths, until when they eventually had to stop for breath.
As though still acting on human impulses, he immediately declared, "You're not meant to kiss other people while you're dating someone."
"We've gone on one date." Victorie argued between breaths. "…And we didn't even kiss."
Teddy's eyebrows shot up in slight surprise. Instead of responding, he found her hand hanging by her hip and began toying with her fingers.
Without allowing herself to get too distracted by the touch, she decided that perhaps it was time to fill him in. "Professor Longbottom caught us. We got detention and stuff."
"Wow." Teddy began. "You sure cherry-picked that Ethan."
"He was your friend first actually." Victorie smiled crookedly and reached up to correct a strand of his hair that was hanging down over his forehead. "Ethan's not so bad." She mumbled.
When she saw that Teddy opened his mouth, and she knew that what was coming out of it next was very likely a counterargument, she quickly changed the subject.
"Why do your little parties always fall on nights when I have dates by the way?" She asked cheekily.
The determination on Teddy's face was wiped away in an instant and he had to stop and ponder for a second.
But the thought process was abandoned as quickly as the insinuation had been made and he resorted to stumbling forward instead, sliding her cardigan off gratuitously until he had backed her up all the way to her bed. She was now standing with her legs against it. With one last little push she was sitting. He sat down next to her and leaned forward toward her lips, captured them and slowly let himself have her.
She slid her fingers into his hair and tugged, he gasped approvingly from the sensation. It was greatly appreciated, she noticed, as he began kissing her with more passion. He leaned over her until her back met with the mattress.
They kept kissing like that for a while, until they found themselves simply lying next to each other on the bed, him stroking her hair and her looking in his eyes.
Eventually it was time for Teddy to leave however, as they both knew that the party wouldn't go on forever.
With one shared kiss for every step it took to make it to the door, Teddy was soon out of her dorm.
The dorm room seemed uncomfortably deserted after that, as the girl got ready for bed. But luckily at least Walpurgis hopped into the bed with her when she made herself comfortable under the covers. Victorie put another pillow next to her head for the cat to sleep on, and the two drifted off to the muffled pounding of music.
Published: 16 April 2022